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Ultra-orthodox Jews have opposed the march, scheduled for next week.
Windows in the synagogue were smashed and the walls were painted with the slogan: "If we can't march in Jerusalem you won't walk in Tel Aviv".
On Wednesday evening ultra-orthodox protesters clashed with police in a district of Jerusalem.
No-one was injured in the Tel Aviv attack, which took place in a central area of the city and was reported early on Thursday.
Ultra-orthodox anger
Itai Pinkas, a member of Tel Aviv's city council and a gay community leader, told Israel's Haaretz newspaper the attack was a "malicious provocation".
"The [gay] community's struggle has always promoted values of tolerance, understanding and consideration, and such violent acts have not and will not be used as a means in the just struggle for attaining full civil rights," he said.
The planned gay pride march in Jerusalem is scheduled to take place next Friday, but police are yet to issue permits for the event.
On Wednesday night protesters in the ultra-orthodox Jerusalem neighbourhood of Mea Shearim threw eggs and rocks at cars, reports said.
Three policemen were reportedly injured, and eight demonstrators were detained.
Further protests are expected in the area in the run-up to the march.
Windows in the synagogue were smashed and the walls were painted with the slogan: "If we can't march in Jerusalem you won't walk in Tel Aviv".
On Wednesday evening ultra-orthodox protesters clashed with police in a district of Jerusalem.
No-one was injured in the Tel Aviv attack, which took place in a central area of the city and was reported early on Thursday.
Ultra-orthodox anger
Itai Pinkas, a member of Tel Aviv's city council and a gay community leader, told Israel's Haaretz newspaper the attack was a "malicious provocation".
"The [gay] community's struggle has always promoted values of tolerance, understanding and consideration, and such violent acts have not and will not be used as a means in the just struggle for attaining full civil rights," he said.
The planned gay pride march in Jerusalem is scheduled to take place next Friday, but police are yet to issue permits for the event.
On Wednesday night protesters in the ultra-orthodox Jerusalem neighbourhood of Mea Shearim threw eggs and rocks at cars, reports said.
Three policemen were reportedly injured, and eight demonstrators were detained.
Further protests are expected in the area in the run-up to the march.
A Jewish invocation will be used by ultra Orthodox rabbis in Jerusalem to curse the organizers of the Gay Pride March and the police who protect them, said a spokesman for the Edah Haredit Monday.
In a ceremony known as "Pulsa D'nura" (blows of fire), rabbis of the anti-Zionist Edah Haredit rabbinic court will convene sometime before the march, which is scheduled for Friday, to conduct the kabbalistic ceremony which is believed to unleash unearthly powers against specified sinners.
According to Shmuel Poppenheim, a spokesman for the Edah Haredit, Rabbi Moshe Sternbach, head of the Edah Haredit's rabbinic court proposed conducting the ceremony during a meeting of rabbinic judges Monday morning.
"All the rabbis were together at the rabbinic court to proceed over a chalitza (part of a levirate ceremony)," said Poppenheim. "After the chalitza, Rabbi Sternbach recommended doing the Pulsa D'nura."
Pulsa D'nura is mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud (Baba Metzia 47a) and in the Zohar.
"If done by a competent, God-fearing rabbinic court like the Edah Haredit, the people who are cursed do not live out the year," said a Jerusalem-based rabbi who preferred to remain anonymous.
The rabbi estimated that the curse was also directed at Attorney General Menachem Mazuz.
"The haredi community is infuriated with Mazuz," said the rabbi.
Mazuz ruled this week that there were no legal obstacles against going ahead with the march.
According to Poppenheim, it has been about 50 years since the Edah Haredit last used the Pulsa D'nura curse.
"It was against people who established Jerusalem's first mixed-sex swimming pool." Poppenheim said that Gershon Agron, Jerusalem's mayor at the time, was also cursed.
"He did not live out the year." Agron, who established The Palestine Post, the forerunner of The Jerusalem Post, died in November, 1959.
Rabbi Yosef Dayan, a rightwing settler from Psagot conducted Pulsa D'nura ceremonies against former Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Ariel Sharon, said that the person who is cursed must deserve it otherwise the curse boomerangs.
He said the Pulsa D'nura must be conducted by at least ten Jewish men with beards who are married and 40 years old or older.
In a related development the Chief Rabbinate's governing council called on Jews to "hold prayer rallies against this abominable parade" but warned against violence.
In a strongly worded notice filled with pathos the chief rabbinate's leading rabbis wrote:
'We trembled in horror at the news of this menacing plot devised by a minority of our lost brothers who perform the lowest, most despicable of acts - acts which are diametrically opposed to the modesty with which the nation of Israel has been blessed.
"They have dared to parade in the holy city, openly rebelling against the laws of the holy Torah and against human morality, embraced by the majority of the world's nations.'
"If our prayer will not be heard (and the parade is allowed) we call for protests to be held on Friday, to express the pain and objection over harming the sanctity and purity of the nation of Israel and the defilement of the holy city," said the announcement.
The Council of Rabbis in Judea and Samaria, a settler movement rabbinic body, also called on its followers to demonstrate against the Gay Pride March.
A prayer rally on the Temple Mount is scheduled for
In a ceremony known as "Pulsa D'nura" (blows of fire), rabbis of the anti-Zionist Edah Haredit rabbinic court will convene sometime before the march, which is scheduled for Friday, to conduct the kabbalistic ceremony which is believed to unleash unearthly powers against specified sinners.
According to Shmuel Poppenheim, a spokesman for the Edah Haredit, Rabbi Moshe Sternbach, head of the Edah Haredit's rabbinic court proposed conducting the ceremony during a meeting of rabbinic judges Monday morning.
"All the rabbis were together at the rabbinic court to proceed over a chalitza (part of a levirate ceremony)," said Poppenheim. "After the chalitza, Rabbi Sternbach recommended doing the Pulsa D'nura."
Pulsa D'nura is mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud (Baba Metzia 47a) and in the Zohar.
"If done by a competent, God-fearing rabbinic court like the Edah Haredit, the people who are cursed do not live out the year," said a Jerusalem-based rabbi who preferred to remain anonymous.
The rabbi estimated that the curse was also directed at Attorney General Menachem Mazuz.
"The haredi community is infuriated with Mazuz," said the rabbi.
Mazuz ruled this week that there were no legal obstacles against going ahead with the march.
According to Poppenheim, it has been about 50 years since the Edah Haredit last used the Pulsa D'nura curse.
"It was against people who established Jerusalem's first mixed-sex swimming pool." Poppenheim said that Gershon Agron, Jerusalem's mayor at the time, was also cursed.
"He did not live out the year." Agron, who established The Palestine Post, the forerunner of The Jerusalem Post, died in November, 1959.
Rabbi Yosef Dayan, a rightwing settler from Psagot conducted Pulsa D'nura ceremonies against former Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Ariel Sharon, said that the person who is cursed must deserve it otherwise the curse boomerangs.
He said the Pulsa D'nura must be conducted by at least ten Jewish men with beards who are married and 40 years old or older.
In a related development the Chief Rabbinate's governing council called on Jews to "hold prayer rallies against this abominable parade" but warned against violence.
In a strongly worded notice filled with pathos the chief rabbinate's leading rabbis wrote:
'We trembled in horror at the news of this menacing plot devised by a minority of our lost brothers who perform the lowest, most despicable of acts - acts which are diametrically opposed to the modesty with which the nation of Israel has been blessed.
"They have dared to parade in the holy city, openly rebelling against the laws of the holy Torah and against human morality, embraced by the majority of the world's nations.'
"If our prayer will not be heard (and the parade is allowed) we call for protests to be held on Friday, to express the pain and objection over harming the sanctity and purity of the nation of Israel and the defilement of the holy city," said the announcement.
The Council of Rabbis in Judea and Samaria, a settler movement rabbinic body, also called on its followers to demonstrate against the Gay Pride March.
A prayer rally on the Temple Mount is scheduled for
JERUSALEM (AP) - A week before a planned gay pride parade in Jerusalem, the city's religious Jews are warning of possible violence and a government minister said the march might have to be scrapped to keep the peace in the holy city.
Gay rights activists fear the parade could end like it did last year - with three marchers stabbed by an ultra-Orthodox protester - and they accuse opponents of assaulting democratic rights. But many devout Jews feel the parade has no place in Jerusalem and they want the march stopped.
"This march is a ruthless assault on traditional Jewish values and the sanctity of Jerusalem," said Mina Fenton, an Orthodox member of Jerusalem's City Council who has led the fight against the parade. More than 100,000 people will attend a counterdemonstration on the day of the march should it be allowed to go ahead, she said, and violence was a possibility.
"When you throw a match, you have to expect a fire," Fenton said.
Notice boards in Jerusalem have been plastered with posters condemning the march, and prominent rabbis have issued calls to stop it.
Shlomo Amar, one of Israel's two chief rabbis, wrote that by ignoring religious laws prohibiting homosexuality, the march "threatens the existence of the people of Israel in its land" and was more destructive than "Nebuchadnezzar and Titus," referring to two historical figures who sacked Jerusalem.
Ultra-Orthodox protesters have already rioted in anticipation of the march. In one disturbance Wednesday, three policemen were hurt by stones and 20 protesters were arrested.
Elena Canetti, a march organizer who heads Jerusalem's main gay rights group, the Open House, worried about the growing friction. "Their incitement might end in tragedy," she said.
Police are moving ahead with preparations for the march, which will require thousands of police to provide security, according to police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.
But the police have yet to issue a permit. Avi Dichter, the Cabinet minister in charge of the police, told Israel Radio on Wednesday that no permit would be issued if securing the march required so many officers that police would be forced to abandon other crucial duties.
"If police believe that they cannot guarantee public safety, the march will not go ahead," Dichter said.
Gay activists had originally planned to hold an international gay pride parade in Jerusalem this summer, but called it off amid the war in Lebanon.
They decided instead to hold a local march Nov. 10. The parade in Jerusalem is expected to differ from such events elsewhere in the world - even those held in the nearby, more permissive city of Tel Aviv - where drag shows and barely clothed marchers on floats are the norm. The Jerusalem marches tend to more sedate, with a few thousand marchers.
This has not helped calm opposition, which includes hard-liners flown in from abroad. One of them is Yehuda Levin, a rabbi from New York, who represents an umbrella organization of ultra-Orthodox clerics and who arrived to fight against the parade. "No one would dream of having this march in Vatican City," he said.
Levin declined to condemn potential violence against marchers. "If you came into my house and attacked my wife and daughters and asked me if I intended to obey the law, you know what the answer would be," Levin said.
Despite the anger sparked by the march, organizers are refusing to back down.
One floor above the office of march opponent Mina Fenton in Jerusalem's city hall is the office of Saar Nathaniel, an openly gay City Council member. The city's gays will push ahead, Nathaniel said, because to back down would set a dangerous precedent for Israel's democracy, proving that violence trumps freedom of speech.
"We are putting a mirror in front of Israeli society and the people of Jerusalem and asking a simple question: Do you want to live in Tehran?" Nathaniel said.
Gay rights activists fear the parade could end like it did last year - with three marchers stabbed by an ultra-Orthodox protester - and they accuse opponents of assaulting democratic rights. But many devout Jews feel the parade has no place in Jerusalem and they want the march stopped.
"This march is a ruthless assault on traditional Jewish values and the sanctity of Jerusalem," said Mina Fenton, an Orthodox member of Jerusalem's City Council who has led the fight against the parade. More than 100,000 people will attend a counterdemonstration on the day of the march should it be allowed to go ahead, she said, and violence was a possibility.
"When you throw a match, you have to expect a fire," Fenton said.
Notice boards in Jerusalem have been plastered with posters condemning the march, and prominent rabbis have issued calls to stop it.
Shlomo Amar, one of Israel's two chief rabbis, wrote that by ignoring religious laws prohibiting homosexuality, the march "threatens the existence of the people of Israel in its land" and was more destructive than "Nebuchadnezzar and Titus," referring to two historical figures who sacked Jerusalem.
Ultra-Orthodox protesters have already rioted in anticipation of the march. In one disturbance Wednesday, three policemen were hurt by stones and 20 protesters were arrested.
Elena Canetti, a march organizer who heads Jerusalem's main gay rights group, the Open House, worried about the growing friction. "Their incitement might end in tragedy," she said.
Police are moving ahead with preparations for the march, which will require thousands of police to provide security, according to police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.
But the police have yet to issue a permit. Avi Dichter, the Cabinet minister in charge of the police, told Israel Radio on Wednesday that no permit would be issued if securing the march required so many officers that police would be forced to abandon other crucial duties.
"If police believe that they cannot guarantee public safety, the march will not go ahead," Dichter said.
Gay activists had originally planned to hold an international gay pride parade in Jerusalem this summer, but called it off amid the war in Lebanon.
They decided instead to hold a local march Nov. 10. The parade in Jerusalem is expected to differ from such events elsewhere in the world - even those held in the nearby, more permissive city of Tel Aviv - where drag shows and barely clothed marchers on floats are the norm. The Jerusalem marches tend to more sedate, with a few thousand marchers.
This has not helped calm opposition, which includes hard-liners flown in from abroad. One of them is Yehuda Levin, a rabbi from New York, who represents an umbrella organization of ultra-Orthodox clerics and who arrived to fight against the parade. "No one would dream of having this march in Vatican City," he said.
Levin declined to condemn potential violence against marchers. "If you came into my house and attacked my wife and daughters and asked me if I intended to obey the law, you know what the answer would be," Levin said.
Despite the anger sparked by the march, organizers are refusing to back down.
One floor above the office of march opponent Mina Fenton in Jerusalem's city hall is the office of Saar Nathaniel, an openly gay City Council member. The city's gays will push ahead, Nathaniel said, because to back down would set a dangerous precedent for Israel's democracy, proving that violence trumps freedom of speech.
"We are putting a mirror in front of Israeli society and the people of Jerusalem and asking a simple question: Do you want to live in Tehran?" Nathaniel said.
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